I wanted to update everyone following this announcement on the state of things at the moment.

First and foremost, we did take possession of our new datacenter space on 09/11/2017. We were able to quickly get the first 500 kW service up and running that first week and were busy moving customer gear into it. Starting in October we were able to add an additional service for the second 500 kW service. This was supposed to be the cadence we would continue following until the new year when we planned to have our entire 3 MW available for colocation customers.

Unfortunately there have been delays thrown into the plan by both the local utility and also with our electrical equipment suppliers. The problem with the utility stemmed around our stated load calculations and the utilities lack of belief in them. The utility here has never had to size equipment for a datacenter before and they undersized our service delivery transformers despite our indicated load figures. We were unaware of the sizing problem since the transformers have no significant information located on the exterior.

The first 500 kW service turned out to be running on a 300 kVA transformer which is being upgraded this Friday to a more suitable 500 kVA unit since it was determined that we are severely overloading it to the point of leaking oil.

The second 500 kW service in turn was also on a similar undersized transformer that doesn't seem to match their records. At this point we are unsure what size it actually is and have been instructed to halt adding any additional load until the size can be validated. We have been monitoring the temperature rise of that transformer and found it to be operating well within tolerances. Unfortunately the utility did not agree with our assessment and we will need to wait until Friday to find out what the situation is.

At this point the utility determined the existing plan for power distribution was no longer going to work as our "constant" load was not within their expectations. They wanted to revisit the plan to oversize our transformers and also potentially shorten our timeline to getting a significant amount of capacity online. They proposed that instead of using 6 x 500 kVA transformers as originally planned that instead they would site 3 x 1500 kVA transformers over the next 3 months and limit our usage to no more than 3.5 MW ensuring that we are only ever running the transformers at a maximum of 73% utilization.

That means that as soon as that first 1500 kVA transformer is placed, we would be bringing on an additional 1.15 MW immediately. That could certainly accelerate customer placement. Unfortunately this also means it all has to go back to the electrical and civil engineers to update the design, back to the county for a plan review of the changes and then finally onto the build out schedule at the utility. I have no idea how long this will take, we are trying to expedite it as much as possible.

Unfortunately shifting from 500 kVA to 1500 kVA transformers significantly increases the fault current requirements of down stream equipment. This resulted in some design changes to the type of disconnects and respective fuses. Fortunately it didn't change any of the customer facing switch gear (meters).

The unfortunate part is the update from our electrical supplier on the state of our order for that customer facing switchgear. Apparently due to the events in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, electrical equipment has become very high demand and disaster relief areas get first priority. We were given an estimate of approximately 6-8 weeks before we see any of that gear. I really hope it ends up being sooner, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I suspect that the utility changes and respective local government involvement will likely cause a similar delay. We're going to try to make enough progress with the utility so that by the time work begins it will be coordinated fairly closely with the arrival of our long awaited switchgear.

All this means that if you were given an availability date of late October to early November you can expect it now to be closer to late December to early January.